In my early years of schooling I hated everything about it. I hated reading, I hated homework, and I just about hated anything associated with school. I remember that when I was in the second grade, I stated that in the future I would never read ‘cause there is no purpose in doing so. I couldn’t have been more resilient to schooling. A lot of it was because of what was going on around me outside of school, and another part is the stress I encountered in school. For instance, I failed Kindergarten because of speech problems. However, once I overcame the speech problems the school system wanted to compensate my failing Kindergarten by bumping me up two grades. It clearly didn’t work out. The students were doing things in the class that I had never seen before; Mathematics that confused me endlessly. My attitude towards schooling then in comparison to now is drastically different. I cannot really say there was much influence on me until middle school where I ran up against some topics and areas that peaked my interest in learning and help me get ready for high school; my introduction to philosophy.
In middle school I caught a glimpse of the Ivory Tower upon moving into my sister's place. My sister was an academic girl herself, despite nearly failing high school. She opened doors to me. She would buy books that I was interested in reading, which since then until now have been nearly all non-fiction. She encouraged me to read, to learn, and to grow. Her boyfriend at the time, a self-taught genius,was also a very large help. Her boyfriend would spend any free-time he had to studying mathematics, psychology, or whatever else piqued his interest at the time. He was very helpful in my early learning and growth.
In middle school I caught a glimpse of the Ivory Tower upon moving into my sister's place. My sister was an academic girl herself, despite nearly failing high school. She opened doors to me. She would buy books that I was interested in reading, which since then until now have been nearly all non-fiction. She encouraged me to read, to learn, and to grow. Her boyfriend at the time, a self-taught genius, was also a very large help. Her boyfriend would spend any free-time he had to studying mathematics, psychology, or whatever else piqued his interest at the time. He was very helpful in my early learning and growth.